"Equality for All Residents: African Americans and Racial Reform in California, 1945-1970"

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African American men and women played a leading role in the hard struggle for racial equality in California during the years from 1945 to 1970. They came from different social backgrounds, held private and public positions, and belonged to the NAACP and other reform organizations. Their main concerns were exclusion from various public accommodations, discriminatory employment, housing discrimination, and segregation of schools. They formed strong alliances with civil rights activist in the Anglo and Latino communities and won much admiration and support from liberal members of local and state government. By the end of the 1960s, African American leaders had secured several laws against discrimination, opened new economic and social opportunities for people of color, and greatly helped move California far down the road of equality. (Exhibit compiled by Martin Schiesl, professor emeritus of history)